(June 12, 2013 at 12:36 am)Undeceived Wrote: How is "education" different from "indoctrination"? Do you call anything religious indoctrination? If so, then what is religion but a set of worldviews? How is educating children on a set of worldviews a bad thing? When you teach no worldviews at all, are you not implying that the best worldview is an "I decide what's best for me" worldview? How is an "I decide" worldview healthy? Why not teach worldviews that focus on issues unrelated to self-gratification? After all, studies show that people who adopt such worldviews live longer, happier lives.
I'll help you out: education is setting out the facts. Indoctrination is setting out something (it doesn't have to be factual) and then formulating the lesson so as to discourage dissent or research into additional information, while encouraging belief in the ideas being indoctrinated sight unseen regardless of their veracity.
So, while teaching your kids algebra is education, teaching them, say... that there's an invisible man in the sky who controls everything, and that if you don't believe this absolutely you'll suffer forever, and also thinking critically about this or studying things that disagree with this concept is the same as disbelieving, and also you don't need evidence for this assertion, just believe it... is indoctrination.
There's an implied threat with religion, in the form of hell, and an implied devaluation of critical thinking in the form of faith, that makes it tailor made for an indoctrinating approach to learning.
"YOU take the hard look in the mirror. You are everything that is wrong with this world. The only thing important to you, is you." - ronedee
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Want to see more of my writing? Check out my (safe for work!) site, Unprotected Sects!